Free Pride and Prejudice (The Wild and Wanton Edition) by Annabella Bloom Page B

families.”
    Nothing but concern for Elizabeth could enable Bingley to keep his countenance. His sister was less delicate, and directed her eyes towards Mr. Darcy with a very expressive smile. Elizabeth, for the sake of saying something that might turn her mother’s thoughts, now asked her if Charlotte Lucas had been at Longbourn since her coming away.
    “Yes, she called yesterday with her father. What an agreeable man Sir William is, Mr. Bingley, is he not? So much the man of fashion, so genteel and easy! He always has something to say to everybody. That is my idea of good breeding. Those persons who fancy themselves very important, and never open their mouths, quite mistake the matter.”
    “Did Charlotte dine with you?” Elizabeth refused to look at Mr. Darcy, but could not help wonder at his silence. Perhaps he knew it was pointless to argue with a woman such as Mrs. Bennet. Or, perhaps, he felt the conversation was now beneath him and did not deign to rejoin it.
    “No, she went home. I fancy she was needed to make the mince-pies. For my part, Mr. Bingley, my daughters are brought up very differently. I always keep servants that can do their own work and they are never expected in the kitchen. But everybody is to judge for themselves how to raise their children, and the Lucases are a very good sort of girls, I assure you. It is a pity they are not handsome. Not that I think Charlotte so very plain, but then she is our particular friend.”
    “She seems a very pleasant young woman,” Mr. Bingley offered.
    “Oh, dear, yes,” Mrs. Bennet insisted, “but you must admit she is very plain. Lady Lucas herself has often said so, and envied me Jane’s beauty. I do not like to boast of my own child, but to be sure, Jane — one does not often see anybody better looking. It is what everybody says. I do not trust my own partiality. When she was only fifteen, there was a man at my brother Gardiner’s in town so much in love with her that my sister-in-law was sure he would make her an offer before we came away. But, he did not. However, he wrote some verses on her, and they were very pretty.”
    “And so ended his affection,” said Elizabeth impatiently. “There has been many a love, I fancy, overcome in the same way. I wonder who first discovered the efficacy of poetry in driving away love.”
    “I believe many to consider poetry as the food of love,” said Darcy, turning his attention back to the conversation.
    “Of a fine, stout, healthy love it may. Everything nourishes what is strong already. But if it be only a slight, thin sort of inclination, I am convinced that one good sonnet will starve it entirely away.”
    Darcy only smiled. The expression, directed solely at her, took her by surprise; and thus ended any further comment she would make on the subject. The general pause which ensued made Elizabeth tremble lest her mother should expose herself again. She longed to speak, but could think of nothing to say, and after a short silence Mrs. Bennet began repeating her thanks to Mr. Bingley for his kindness to Jane, with an apology for troubling him also with Lizzy. Mr. Bingley was unaffectedly civil in his answer, and forced his younger sister to be civil also, and say what the occasion required. Miss Bingley performed her part without much graciousness, but Mrs. Bennet was satisfied, and soon afterwards ordered her carriage. Upon this signal, the youngest of her daughters put herself forward. The two girls had been whispering to each other during the whole visit, and the result of it was, that the youngest should tax Mr. Bingley with having promised on his first coming into the country to give a ball at Netherfield.
    Lydia felt herself very equal to address Mr. Bingley on the subject of the ball. She had high animal spirits, and a sort of natural self-consequence, which the attention of the officers, to whom her uncle’s good dinners, and her own easy manners recommended her, had increased into assurance.